Recipe - Steamed Tung-Po Pork

2 pound Pork shoulder or loin
4 cup Water
1 teaspoon Sugar
2 teaspoon Sherry
4 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 (up to)
2 pound Spinach
3 tablespoon Oil

1. Place pork and water in a pan, bring to a boil, then cook, covered,
15 minutes over medium heat. Drain, reserving stock.

2. Combine sugar, sherry and soy sauce, and add to pork in pan. Cook
over very low heat, turning meat constantly until evenly colored. (If the
pan gets dry, moisten with a few drops of reserved stock.)

3. Add remaining stock; bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, 20
minutes. Remove pork and let cool. Cut against the grain in 1/2inch
slices, then in strips about 1 by 2 inches.

4. Place pork slices skin side down in a deep, heatproof bowl. Steam on
a rack 1 hour (see HOWTO SECTION).

5. Wash spinach and remove tough stems. Heat oil, add spinach and
stirfry until softened, but still fresh and green (about 2 minutes).

6. Heap spinach over pork in the steaming bowl. Invert bowl into a deep
serving dish, so that spinach is at the bottom and pork, skin side up, is
on top.

NOTE: This dish, sometimes called Chinese Casserole of Pork, is
attributed to Soo TungPo, a wellknown poet of the T'ang Dynasty.

VARIATIONS: For the spinach, substitute Chinese lettuce, cut in 3inch
sections.

Simmer the pork in water to cover 1One half hours, then drain. Brown meat on
all sides in oil heated to smoking. Let cool slightly and slice as above.
Transfer to a shallow heatproof dish. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons soy sauce
and steam 1One half hours. Serve on a bed of stirfried spinach leaves.

From The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, ISBN 0517658704. Downloaded
from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, http://www.erols.com/hosey.